A Touch of Fear
by A. Hayes
Summary: Jack Frost is overcome with guilt for sending Pitch back into the nothingness that means being alone. Jack knows what it means to be alone, to not be believed in. Unsure of the source of his feelings, he decides to try and get in touch with Pitch to cure the horrible feelings in his gut. [BlackIce aka Pitch x Jack]
1. Chapter 1

_So sweet; so full of hope and wonder. There's only one thing missing—a touch of fear. __What goes together better than cold and dark? We could bring fear back into the world! It would be—Pitch Black?—and Jack Frost, too._

I sigh and open my eyes just in time to see my breath fading. I've had this dream off and on for quite some time now, totaling almost half a year since Pitch has been sent back to his realm.

I don't want to feel guilty about what we did to him; we saved the spirit of belief after all. I get to be seen by children around the world now instead of going around and being alone, like I had been for 300 years before that. But I do. I feel terribly guilty. Because Pitch is alone. Not only alone but suffering from his own creations. Not to mention this is _again_, he'd been alone before, when the Man in the Moon sent the first Guardians down.

Should I feel guilty? It's only human to feel guilt. But I drowned to become Jack Frost. I'm not technically human anymore, I'm a Guardian. Do the others feel guilty? North and Bunnymund might just be relieved, and Sandy is probably overjoyed that he's back with us in one piece. But what about Tooth? She was sympathetic to Pitch. I suppose I'm sympathetic because I know what it's like.

_I thought I was the only one who knew what it felt like to be alone… but I was wrong._

"Why won't you get out of my head? Why me? Why not anyone else?" I pinch my nose and sigh again, crawling out of bed. This bed, dare I call it my own, was more a gift than something I earned. I have been given my own house courtesy of North; it's at the North Pole, for convenience sake. Though we haven't all gotten together since we ended Pitch, so really what for? I spend most of my time in Burgess anyways. I sleep in the snow there a lot. But it's nice to have warmth once in a while. The little bit of it that I can feel through a body that's likely made of ice.

I grab my clothes and staff and head out to the ocean side. I spend a lot of time here at the coast, just wandering around on the ice. Sheer cliffs and valleys with thick ice between them and a vast, freezing, dark ocean beneath and stretching beyond as far as the eye can see. I see the darkness and can't help but think of when I first woke up as Jack Frost, the ice cracking above me as I came out of the water. I've thought about drowning again, too. Not that I could for the life of me, it freezes when I walk on it. I couldn't drown no matter how hard I tried. Not that I want to, either. Since becoming an 'official' Guardian, I've had more fun than any of the 300 years of my life before that. It's just what comes to mind. Darkness.

And Pitch.

I stumble where I had been balanced on the edge of a cliff, walking one foot in front of the other with my staff lightly grazing over the snow. I barely catch my balance, almost plummeting over the side. I look down out of habit and for a moment, just a flash, I see the black pit I fell into when Pitch brought me to his realm and revealed to me my fears. My _darkest _fears.

So then, if I did fall, and the darkness caught me, would that mean…? I groan quietly and shake my head, moving away from the edge. Why the hell would I want to go there anyways? I wouldn't be welcome there. It just burns so much; the guilt hurts.

My feet are off the ground before the thought is fully formed. The next thing I know I'm flying over the ocean and heading to Tooth's Palace. Not that she can help me, but she seems like the only person I could dare trust with something like this.

My feet touch the multicolored tile and I hear it crackle from the cold of my feet as I walk across it. "Tooth?"

"Jack!" I hear a gasp behind me. Possibly a delighted one, it's hard to tell. I turn and offer a smile, kind of automatically, to the one I know will be on her face. "It's been a long time since any of us have seen each other… what's the occasion?"

"I have… I was hoping I could talk to you about something."

Her head tilts with concern. "Of course, Jack. What is it?"

"Could we…" I look around at all of her little helpers. "In private?"

She nods hesitantly and we go to a more secluded place. The sun is in full force on this side of the Palace; I have to shield my eyes from it. But it's free of helpers.

"I have to say this is kind of scaring me, Jack. Please, tell me straight away."

I look away from her to ask the question, and then decide I'm too curious to know what her expression will be. "Do you ever think about Pitch?"

She flinches with shock. "What? Why would I? He's finally gone; we have our powers back."

"I know, but… don't you feel a little guilty?"

"About what?"

"How's he's… stuck down there by himself. That's what caused the whole mess in the first place. How neglected he felt."

"…" She nods solemnly. "I do feel a little guilty, I suppose. But what else were we supposed to do? It was the only way."

"What if there had been another way?"

"Like what?"

"I don't know, anything."

"I tried to give him one."

"In the end, I mean. If he'd truly requested redemption, would you have given to him? After all he'd done?"

"I… I don't know, Jack. Why are you so concerned about him?"

"I've just been thinking about it a lot lately. I feel really guilty."

"It's okay to feel guilty, Jack. It means you have feelings. And to have them for someone like Pitch, well, I can only commend you for that. But he was selfish and his intentions were twisted. We did what we had to."

"I know." Maybe this wasn't such a good idea. I'm running in circles with this and none of it is helping.

Tooth looks to somewhere behind me. "I should go. Sounds like I'm needed by the little ones. Sorry for not having more time, Jack. You can always come talk to me again." She offers a smile before her wings carry her off and back to her busy life of children's teeth.

I lean against the pillar and sigh. Even if I had the slightest inclination to go and see Pitch, how would I get there? He was completely sealed off from this world. He'd probably be back and causing havoc already if he had a way to get here. I step off of Tooth's Palace and make my way to Burgess.

I hang out with Jamie still, sometimes. Give Burgess the snow days. But it's not as fun. Something's missing from it. I feel alone here again; a void that no child or Guardian could fill. I wondered once if it was my sister; long repressed memories trying to come forward. But it didn't feel like that, either.

I land on the lake that is responsible for my creation but am already walking off the ice and into the trees. I stop at a small clearing where the grass has refused to grow for months. Ever since Pitch's bed was here. I survey the grass, moving it with my feet and my staff, looking for any telltale trace of his black dust. There is not a speck to be found; he has been swallowed so completely. But there has to be something. People still have nightmares, still have fears. Darkness still comes.

Can Guardians have nightmares?

I stop in the center of the dead patch, crouching and brushing a hand over it. This is what Pitch left behind. Death and decay.

"Pitch…" Oh god, what am I doing? It's like I'm talking to a dead person. Which I've never done before anyways. I've seen it in Burgess, for family. Pets. "You got to be here somewhere. It's always night on some side of the planet and there's always someone scared of something."

I give a sigh of frustration and sit on the grass, tossing my staff into the snow in front of me. "What am I even doing? Why do I even care about you?" There's too much going on in my brain for me to really know what my reasoning for any of this is. I've acted on impulse for most of my life anyways, how is this any different?

Because the Guardians taught me restraint. Pitch offered me freedom but the Guardians drew a line that they didn't want me to cross. I look behind me, feeling like I'm watched. That thought hadn't been completely mine. I didn't resent the Guardians for everything they'd done. They didn't do things _to _me they did things _for _me. _With _me. They believed in me when no one else did. Except for maybe Pitch. But he could have been lying when he said that. It might not have been—probably wasn't—heartfelt.

"Pitch." I decide. I'm being reckless, going back to my old self. The Guardians would have a cow if they knew what I was doing. But I can't not do this.

"I want you to give me a nightmare tonight."


	2. Chapter 2

I sit there for a while, waiting for something to happen. I blow a sigh and grab my staff, getting up. I feel like an idiot sitting there.

I feel the overwhelming urge to head home and go to bed, but I won't be able to sleep. Not with a full night of rest behind me. I need to do something that will tire me out regardless of my anxiousness to see if Pitch heard me. No, I need to do something that would make me scared. Make me pass out. It'd have a higher chance of bringing him out.

I don't even know why I'm doing any of this. I've turned off my control switch and there's no stopping it now so why not? I think that's my reason. I hope I find out. That's why I tried to contact him.

I decide to spend the day in Burgess. A snow fight with all the kids in town maybe. That'd be pretty awesome. Nice and cold.

Well, alright then.

I walk back onto the ice and head back into town. I walk today to pass more time. I need something to get my mind off things. Pitch, and even everything else. I lean down to the snow and form a ball as I walk. I stop at Jamie's house and hurl it at his window. I hear the gasp inside and he runs to the window, throwing it open. "Jack!"

"Get your butt out here I'm starting a snow fight!"

"With who?"

"Who ever you can hustle up! The whole town if you can!"

He laughs triumphantly and disappears from the window to carry out my instructions. I walk from the house and start down the street, dragging my staff along in the snow, forming a long line of snowballs as I go. In the time it takes them all to get outside, I have a whole block—both sides of the street—lined with snowballs. I'm perched on a telephone line and watching from above as the first snowball is thrown and it kicks off the war.

I'm smiling as I watch, but I'm detached. It's fun to watch but I don't want to participate, which is unusual for me. My thoughts are drifting and I know where they want to go. I growl in frustration and fly back to the lake.

"What is _wrong _with me?! Get out of my heaaad Pitch! Get out! Go! Be gone!" I sink down onto the ice and lay flat on my back. Glaring at the sky. The sun is out and it's too bright to stare too long. I close my eyes and turn my head away from the sky.

"Jack."

It sounds like my sisters voice. The one from my memories that Tooth gave me. But I've already looked through them. Why do they come now?

"Jaaack."

I open my eyes. Wait, do I? I touch my hand to my face. I feel it but I can't see it at all.

"Good morning, Jack."

That's not my sister.

"Pitch?"

A frustrated sigh. "Yes, Jack. Slow to rise I see."

I glare. "Yeah, whatever, Pitch."

He shakes his head. "Tsk tsk, Jack. What's with the hostility? _You _were the one who summoned _me _after all."

Oh. Right.

"Which brings us to the question: What _did _you summon me for, dear boy?"

I suddenly don't want to talk to him. I'd forgotten how cocky and full of ego he is. But I did request him so it's not like I'd be able to wake up from this on my own anyways. It's supposed to be a nightmare; Pitch's world. And indeed it is, everything is black except for Pitch and myself.

"I feel bad."

His expression is not impressed and his tone is sour. "Yes, because you're the only Guardian who is capable of having a conscience and thus feeling remorse."

I roll my eyes and have to force myself to finish the rest of the statement. "I felt bad about _you._" Now that I've said it I feel my nonchalant confidence being sucked away, and my face feels a little hot after I see Pitch's expression.

Shock. Utter and completely shock. Lips parted and eyes slightly wide. Speechless. But it's only for about two seconds before the Pitch we all know is back. He sneers and leans over me, the darkness around him practically engulfing me.

"You? Burgess _hero _and all time _fun _guy Jack _Frost _feels bad about Pitch_ Black?" _He crouches in front of me; sneer coming right into my personal space, enough for me to flinch back slightly. His tone is calm but also drips with mockery. "_Why _would you feel bad about me, Jack? What heart ache would make you want to come back to this world?"

I look at the ground between us—the tiny little square of grey that I can see—and my voice sounds sheepish. I could punch myself for this moment, this weakness. The last thing Pitch needs is more motivation to try and come back to the world.

"I just… couldn't stop thinking about how you were alone down here. And how you told me—"

"That you were the only one who understood me?" He scowls now, suddenly standing, cloak almost hitting me in the face as he whips around and takes a couple steps away. He clasps his hands behind his back and stands with his back to me. "Yes, well, that was rather a leap of faith for me. You don't _really _understand what it means to be alone, Jack. Not _truly." _He starts pacing back in forth in front of me, hands gesturing his irritation. "At least you were considered a person. A myth, but a person. You had a name. Me? Nightmares. Bad dreams. Blame it on the pizza you ate, blame it on bad_ milk_!No one has even _heard _of Pitch Black!" He turns to me in desperation, hand pointing upwards to the world assumedly above us.

"I only came to you, Jack, because you knew what it was like not to be _seen. _People didn't know you were a Guardian. I needed someone to believe in me so that I could have _some _substance without having to send my Nightmares out and take it from people. You were part of it yourself, so you know exactly what I mean when I say that Guardians work better when they're together than when they're alone."

My head tilts. My suspicions about him were genuine. "So what? You just wanted someone to mooch off of?"

"Essentially, yes I did. But that wouldn't be forever. You don't have to mooch off someone who considers themselves a partner to you, Jack."

"Is that what you were hoping for?"

He was silent for a moment, thinking it over. "I knew it couldn't be avoided if I wanted to keep you around."

"So if I said… if I made a deal with you…"

He raises an eyebrow and smiles flatly. "And why would you want to do that?"

"I just need to, okay? Don't ask. Would you or not?"

"Depends on what it is."

"If I… promised a partnership with you—it would be solely company though—would you promise in return _not _to go after the Guardians? That is something I wouldn't help you do."

"And you expect me to believe that you are offering this to me seriously?"

"Yes. So what if you're kind of alone isn't the same as mine? I still get it, and, after being with the Guardians… I wouldn't wish being alone on anyone. Not even you."

"That seems kind of strange considering none of the other Guardians give a bloody care, don't you think?"

"They've always had each other."

He nods silently. Taking his time to reply. I'm sure he's already come to a decision; in fact he might even know why I'm down here even though I don't. He's drawing it out because he sees how crucial his decision is to me.

"…alright." He says finally. "I'll give it a try."

And just like that the black vanishes and so does Pitch, leaving me staring up at a blue sky and Jamie and his friends' faces.


	3. Chapter 3

"Uh…" I look between Jamie and his friends. Even Cupcake is there. "…What?"

"Why are you out here?" Jamie asks. Naturally he'd be the first to notice my lack of attendance in a snowball fight in Burgess.

"Um." I think about what to say as I sit up. What do you tell a bunch of kids who were almost consumed, along with the rest of the world, by fear and that fear is what you went and made a deal with just moments before? I only realize how stupid my decision is now that I think about it in those words. "Thinking."

"You looked asleep to me." He seems suspicious. I can't blame him. Unfortunately he's more attuned to me than the rest of his friends. That can be good for certain things, but he's only ten. I'm eighteen—add 301 on top of that too. There are actually a lot of things I can't talk about with him and would never approach another Guardian with either. Somehow Pitch crosses my mind as a candidate for these issues.

"I guess I was. I didn't mean to pass out like that."

"You okay? You start a snow fight and then leave in the middle of it without even throwing some snow yourself?"

"I… yeah. I'm fine." I feel so bad for lying, but I can't tell the truth. I need to vow to myself to keep Jamie and his friends out of this. The Guardians too if I can help it. "Just been distracted lately."

He grows even more suspicious. "Do you like somebody?"

I stare at him for a couple seconds before I find myself laughing. It sounds nervous. "What kind of question is that?"

"Well, I've seen older kids acting like you."

"…Oh?"

"Yeah they get all weird and don't really want to do anything except hang out with each other and they get all close and it's really weird."

I feel my cheeks getting heated, which can't stand well in his opinion of me liking someone. I'm just so shocked someone his age is even aware of that. "I really doubt it's that, Jamie. You see anyone here with me?"

"…No." He shrugs. "But come on. A snowball fight! _You _missing it!"

"I know. I know. You can trust me when I say it's not that, okay?"

The suspicion slowly fades from his face. "Okay. Are you coming back with us?"

"Might as well." I stand and we all start walking back to the "snowball fight street". I stop after a couple seconds. "Hey." They all turn and look at me. I grin and raise my staff. "How about we take a shortcut?" My grin is quickly outmatched by all of theirs.

* * *

I fall into one of the many snow banks surrounding the lake. Exhausted. I'd managed to let go of everything and actually have some fun with Jamie and his troop. We'd ended up building snow forts and having hours of snowball fights, stopped only twice for them to warm up with hot chocolate. I feel a smile tugging lightly at my lips as I think back on it.

"How can you stay so naïve after being on this planet for so many years?"

I flinch and prop up on my elbows to look behind me, eyes narrowing cautiously. Pitch walks towards me through the snow. I sit up the rest of the way so I don't feel so belittled when he stops beside me with his arms folded.

"I get that you haven't been on this earth for as long as any of us," he continues, head tilting, "and that your virtue is fun. But we affect adults too. Only you seem to… be able to not to, somehow."

"Parents have fun watching their kids have fun."

"But those who don't have children."

I shrug and look out at the lake. "Why do you care?"

"It makes no sense to me. You've been here so long and yet you still manage to have fun with a bunch of ten year olds. What happens when they get older, Jack?" A small grin crosses his face. "When they start to realize they need an education and a job and start becoming lovers with each other and just… forget about you again?"

I glare into the snow. I've thought about this before. I've watched Burgess grow and flourish right under my nose, but I hadn't been believed in before so I had no friends. And I've only been believed in for a little over 6 months. "When I said company that wasn't me giving you permission to mock me."

His smile is pleasant. It makes my stomach turn. "Oh, but I'm not mocking you, Jack. I'm trying to show you something your naivety is preventing you from seeing."

"You mean fear."

"Fear does happen to be involved, yes."

I scoff. "How convenient for you."

"I have no business scaring you, Jack. Not anymore. I lack the power to do it efficiently and you made a deal with me that… I'd probably be stupid to break."

I look at him with a raised eyebrow. "I'm sorry, I didn't hear you. What?"

"You heard me." He growls, then sighs and recomposes himself. "That young friend of yours, the brown haired boy…"

"Jamie."

"Sure." He waves a hand. "His conversation with you just reminded me of something that has been painfully absent since our human lives."

"You were human?"

"Tooth told you all of us were. I am, though it may be shocking to you, included in that sum."

"So what are you saying? You're lonely because you have no lover?" I frown as I say it. This conversation has taken a very awkward turn and I'm being wrenched out of my comfort zone. Above all, I'm sure Pitch is doing this all on purpose, perhaps just to make me uncomfortable.

"Aren't you?"

I blink. "What?"

"You blushed when he asked you."

"That was—he startled me! He's a little kid who shouldn't even know about that!"

"But you aren't 'little'. You're of age."

I feel heat flooding my cheeks again as I glare at him. What is he talking to me about this for?

Pitch simply raises his eyebrows slightly, waiting for my response. Not letting me see his thoughts at all.

"What's your point?"

"Has love never crossed your mind? You've been 'of age' for three centuries, boy."

"What's that matter to you?"

"I'm trying to figure you out."

"Huh?"

"You're so jovial, even after decades of not being believed in, after realizing you lost your family and all human relations with your death, and have not had a single friend until you met the Guardians just shy of half a year ago. How do you do it?"

"It helps that I don't have to live off fear." I can't help but poke fun at him. He's being too strange and I have to try to establish some sense of normalcy.

"Don't make this about me." He scowls. "I've seen you around the city. You can't be satisfied anymore and you're aware of that, though not what you need to satisfy yourself."

"Again, _why _do you care?"

"I wasn't joking when I said nothing goes better together than dark and cold, Jack. When winter comes, people get scared. Black ice on the roads, car accidents, power outages… it only makes logical sense. Good dreams, joy, hope, and wonder, are all opposite to what fear is. But fun? And winter? A lot of fun can come from fear you know."

"If you're a sadist, sure."

"Or a masochist."

"Whatever. I see the sadist in the area and it's not me."

"That's because you're the masochist."

"_What?"_

He gives a one note laugh, tossing his head back. "Regardless of what brings you to me, Jack, you came to me. To _me. _You came to _darkness_ and to _fear _to try and figure out what's missing inside of you. You believe that company with me will solve your problems. How is wanting a relationship with nightmares not masochistic?"

"I—this is stupid. You're just trying to confuse me."

"It's obviously working."

"Shut up. You don't know me."

"Mm." A grim but slightly crooked smile.

"What? _What _was that for?"

"You'll do anything to avoid admitting something I'm right about, won't you?"

"Shut up!"

He laughs full out now. My cheeks heat in anger and I turn away from him. "You're too easy, Jack. Much too easy. Clearly there are some things you need to think about before I talk to you again."

He starts to walk away but I feel his hand brush through my hair as he leaves. I freak out and slap at his hands but they're already gone. When I turn to chastise him, he's already vanished. The sun has set and the only thing the moon lets me see are the stars and my breath.


	4. Chapter 4

It's been four days without so much as a whisper from Pitch.

I'm going insane.

The man is a master manipulator, of that I am absolutely sure. So naturally he'd make it look like he's taken me up on the promise and then vanish without a trace because he wants nothing to do with me.

Why do I want anything to do with him?

I sigh, a cloud of breathing living my mouth. It'd started feeling, of all things, claustrophobic, in Burgess. So I took off and did something I hadn't done since we collected teeth for Tooth. I explored the world. It wasn't even really exploring then; we breezed past because we were hunting with purpose. Now I was actually getting a good look at things. At how much they had really changed in 301 years.

I didn't notice it in Burgess because I grew up in the town and watched it blossom both under me and around me. But right now I'm on a roof of a building somewhere in Russia, and I really see how it was. People bustling down the streets, cars in a rush to get where they needed to go, everyone on their cell phones and looking like they don't care about a damn thing besides making the money they need to live.

I try to picture myself in a business suit with a coffee and briefcase, walking on my way to work. Or sitting in a desk at school like Jamie does. I shake my head, mind not only rejecting both ideas but forcing me away from them. I've been free for too long. That kind of entrapment would drive me nuts.

Like Pitch's absence. Trapping me within my own mind after I thought I'd found a solution to the circles it felt like I was running in.

"They don't believe in you, you know."

I give a cry and almost fall off the roof as a tall black mass fills the side of my vision. "Jesus, Pitch!" I shove him hard with both hands. He shifts from the impact of my hands but doesn't stumble. Just raises his eyebrows like he has no idea why I'm so flustered. "Don't do that ever again!"

"You wouldn't die if you fell." He reminded me, looking down at the street himself with distant eyes. Voice unusually quiet and tame. A slight look of distaste on his face.

"What was this about not being believed in?"

"The children here. Or anywhere else outside of Burgess, for that matter."

"They do too. I saw them and they saw me."

"Today?"

"…no."

"When?"

"…before we…" Can I say defeated when he's standing right here beside me? This man who is nothing but a bundle of ego? "Fought you."

"You do remember what I did, don't you?"

"How could I forget?" I glare. Again I don't know where he's going with this and it's making my skin crawl.

"The world stopped believing in you. All of you. The only one who saved you was that brown haired boy."

"Jamie." I find myself insisting again.

"I could care less who he actually is, Jack. The point is the only reason you were believed in was because of him and his five friends. The rest of the world was snuffed out."

"Until they brought Sandy back."

"That defeated my army but there are still Fearlings that I didn't create. Still children who don't believe. Children who are still taken over by that fear that means they don't believe in any of you."

"They don't believe in you either."

"You're missing what I'm trying to tell you."

"Why don't you just say it straight up then?"

"I thought you were smarter than that, Jack. Clearly I assumed wrong." A wry smile. I scowled and resisted the urge to punch his lights out. "Outside of Burgess you are nothing. The others have their reputations keeping them afloat, but you? Even Jamie didn't know that Jack Frost existed and was much less a person belonging up on the worship wall with the rest of them. How do you think they feel elsewhere, Jack? Where they weren't directly affected by what happened between us?"

"There's always going to be people who don't believe."

"You're avoiding the implication."

I grit my teeth. I didn't realize I'd had enough until just this moment. My control snaps. "So what if they don't know who I am elsewhere in the world?! All I need is Burgess! I don't need to be believed in by the whole planet to continue my existence! And I certainly don't need you here nagging in my ear and saying I don't matter to anyone because it's not God damn true!"

His expression gives nothing away, only worsening my need to pull on his face and try to get something out of him. _Anything. _"Then why are you here, Jack? Why are you halfway around the world when Burgess is good enough for you? Why are you in a place that causes you _pain_?"

"I—" I shake my head, unable to process what's being asked of me. Why am I here? Burgess was suffocating me. Why? I don't know. Can the children see me here? No. Why come to a place that dredges up 300 years of being forgotten and walking through people like a ghost? "I don't know—I don't know!" My hands go to my ears to keep from hearing Pitch say anything else.

_That's because you're the masochist._

"Shut up! Get out of my head!"

He's shaking my shoulders, trying to get me to open my eyes. I scream at him and shove him off, not wanting to. But when I do, North is staring me in the face, concern written all over his. I feel my chest heaving with heavy panting and a look around shows me to be in my house at the North Pole.

A nightmare. It had all been a bad dream.

"What is wrong, Jack?"

"Nothing. Bad dream that's all." I struggle out of the sheets to get away from the dark feelings like clinging at me. Vines trying to pull me into the shadows. North gives me a look. "What?"

"Bad dream?"

"Pitch is done, North. It wasn't him." The lie comes easier than I thought. How can I speak a lie like truth to the people I owe so much to? They wouldn't understand why I went to Pitch of all people, that's why. They'd be insulted. Crushed. Confused. Betrayed.

My head starts to ache and I groan quietly. "I'm going out for some air." I snatch my staff from where it leans beside the end of the bed. North's eyes follow me and I wonder what I can say to deter him from becoming suspicious. "I'm fine, really. It wasn't anything out of the ordinary." Another lie. I don't remember most of my own past, how can I say if something's ordinary or not?

But the line has been severed. Any doubt North was having vanishes from his face and I realize I'll really be by myself from now on in terms of dealing with Pitch. If he keeps his end of the bargain, that shouldn't be a problem. But what he's done to me just so far has already surpassed what I'd expected. He has a trick up his sleeve and no doubt I'm playing right into it. But what else can I do? I'm not sure of anything anymore and suddenly Pitch seems to be the only one with answers.


End file.
